Star Wars 1997 Hong Kong handover special edition figurine set – WTF

I took these pictures of the window of a comic store near the office. At first I thought the box was just your standard Star Wars collection and I didn’t make a connection with the Hong Kong name check on the bottom of the box.
Then it hit me, the flags at the top left hand corner of the box.
But does anyone know why? Apart from a blatant money-grab to exploit gullible geeks?